Paul Jannace: The ultimate game comes to the mecca

As a now seasoned veteran of Super Bowls, you can smell something big happening.

Even in New York City, you can sense hype. A few blocks from where the ball drops for the new year stands the Super Bowl media center.

It's essentially controlled chaos, with media from all over the world converge for a week to cover a football game.

Of course, the Super Bowl has become much larger than a single football game.

The only ones who view this as a football game are the ones playing in it. The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks must take that approach - it's just a football game.

We all know it's the ultimate the sport of football has to offer, but the ones who have excelled on this biggest of stages are the ones who played like it was a simple game.

It's very easy to allow these two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl to overwhelm you, even if you aren't playing in it. There are more events going on in the New York and New Jersey area it would make this blog entry far too long.

Much of the talk in the early parts of Super Bowl week has been dominated by the weather, Richard Sherman, and Peyton Manning. However, this is an opportunity to hear about all the colorful characters this Super Bowl has to offer.

Sherman is certainly one of those characters - whether you view him as a hero or villain - he's intriguing.

Manning's legacy will get plenty of play this week, along with him trying to win a Super Bowl in the same stadium his brother plays in - just like Eli did a couple of years ago.

In some ways, the week leading up to the Super Bowl can be more fun than the game itself. That's what makes the atmosphere in New York City so special right now.

In my time covering the Super Bowl in Tampa, MIami, and Dallas, the same feeling came over me. The idea of a cold-weather Super Bowl was never that interesting to me, until the city I grew up in was awarded the first experiment.

Although, I already found out I will be outside during the game but in a heated - and covered - booth in the stands. I probably should still bundle up just in case.

Paul Jannace is the sports editor of the Wellsville (N.Y.) Daily Reporter, a Gatehouse Media publication. He is covering his fourth Super Bowl. He can be reached at pauljannace@wellsvilledaily.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/pjscribe.